Jealousy
by Mithrildin
Summary: Harry gets beaten badly


The touch of jealousy  
  
First day, new term. The Hogwarts students get off the train and board the carriages up to the school. As Harry walks towards his carriage with Ron and Hermione, he turns to talk to her. "Hermione, you said I..." but Hermione is gone. Harry turns to look for her, and sees her talking to a gorgeous, raven-haired girl, who has just stepped off the train. Beside him, Ron is goggling at the girl as well. Harry can almost see the slobber running down his chin. He shoves Ron, tells him to shut his mouth, and they wait for Hermione to catch up. As she walks over, both of them can't take their eyes off the girl. Hermione, looking amused at their flabbergasted faces, stirs them out of their daydreams. "Who are you looking at, eh ?" "I...er...well....ahem.." Ron is not able to pronounce a single sentence. Finally, Harry wrenches his eyes away, looks at Hermione who is having serious trouble keeping herself from laughing, and says: "That girl...." "Who, her ?" Hermione points over to the first-year with the cascade of dark hair stepping onboard a carriage. "Yeah..." says Harry dreamily. "Who is she ?" Ron wants to know eagerly. "Her name is Rowen Longbottom. She is Neville's sister. Didn't you know ?!" Obviously, Harry and Ron didn't. "I just hope she will be in Gryffindor " Ron whispers a least a hundred times while the carriages bump their way up to the school.  
  
All the evening, up to the sorting, Harry is nervous. Ron repeats the same phrase over and over again. Hermione's only reaction is "Gee... boys...pah!" She rolls her eyes. A sigh and a groan, along to thunderous cheering, shakes Harry and Ron out of their daydreaming. "Whu...what happened ?" Harry asks Hermione. "Your "darling" just became a Ravenclaw. You don't seem to be the only one regretting that !" Beside her, Lee Jordan is pounding his head on a table.  
  
Harry and Ron do not see Rowen again for some time, only at mealtimes and feasts, as the first-years have classes in another part of the castle for most of the time. One night, after many, many long hours of sighing and heart-broken-self-pitying, Ron and Harry make up a wild plan to capture this beautiful girl on her way back to the common room and get her to talk to them. They tell Hermione, who is still sitting in the common room, doing her homework, they are going to bed. After sneaking up the stairway, they get the invisibility cloak and hurry out of the portrait hole, all the while holding their breath so that Hermione does not notice their secret mission. Ron quickly grabs Crookshanks and holds his mouth shut, until they are out of the portrait hole, then kicks him back through it. "Who is there ?" Hermione and the Fat Lady ask simultaneously. As the angry Crookshanks makes a hard landing on the stone floor, Hermione sighs, says "Crookshanks, you know you should be a-bed by now" and closes the hole behind the two. "YES !!!" whispers Harry in Ron's ear, as they tip-toe their way through the empty corridors to the common room of the Ravenclaws. Not wanting to ask the Stupid Knight for help again, they follow a Ravenclaw prefect until he stops before a suit of armour. Although invisible, Harry and Ron hide behind a corner, nearly tripping over the cloak, as the prefect lifts the vizor of the suit of armour, and talks to the empty metal head. Harry can distinctly make out the word "Knowledge". The suit swings aside and reveals a door in the wall. When the prefect has disappeared, Harry and Ron share some cauldron cakes they got from the kitchens and wait. Only half an hour later, the door opens again. A black-cloaked, black-haired girl steps out, checks the empty corridor, and hurries silent as a mouse, around the next corner. "Quick!" Harry whispers to Ron. "Ouch, don't bump me into the wall, my bloody nose !" Ron moans and quickly scurries after Harry. They follow Rowen lower and lower under the school. Sometimes, they have to stand totally still for a second in order not to let her hear they are following.  
  
Finally, they come out of a dark passageway into the small rock haven deep under the school. The small boats seem to have disappeared, or Hagrid might have led them back across the lake. The little cave with its curtain of ivy is romantically lit by thousands of candles, hovering in the air or stuck on little out-jutting edges of rock.  
  
And on the pier sits.... "Malfoy !" Ron shouts the name out so loud that Draco turns a bit and listens. His suspicions are satisfied, when he sees Rowen walking towards him. He stands up, they meet, and their hands clasp directly. Harry can feel Ron burning with jealousy beside him. The heat beside him grows even hotter when Draco and Rowen engage in a passionate, confident kiss which appears not to be the first. As Draco disentangles his hand from the black strands, they sit on the end of the pier, their hands clasped.  
  
"If my father knew I was meeting you, he would kill me ! The Longbottoms ! Rowen, tell me: would you go away with me, secret and loving ? Like Romeorus and Julietta in the tale of the "Wizard's love ?" " "Oh Draco... your father is the only thing that stands in our way... we could be so happy together ! You are not evil... I love you...." Their hands clasp tighter. Their faces lean nearer. Their lisps meet. But right at this moment: "Argh ! ENOUGH YOU SLIMY BIT OF FILTH! She is too good for me !" Ron can't stop himself. He jumps from under the Invisibility Cloak and draws his wand. "YOU ! BLOODY WEASLYS ! Why do you keep stalking my family, I..." he can't finish. Ron, furious and red-hot with rage, points his wand at Draco and shouts "ALERATUM !!!" Draco can just dodge the devastation spell, but screams and nearly falls into the water. "Ron ! This is a year seven spell ! We are not aloud to do this ! And anyway, she is mine, not yours !" Harry yells at Ron in distress and anger. "Screw you Harry ! Stop telling me what to do ! EXPELLIARMUS !!!" Harry's wand flies out of his hand, high up in the air, bangs of the rock ceiling and drops in the lake, where it floats out through the ivy curtain. "Dammit Ron ! You really piss me off !" Harry dodges another of Ron's spells ("He shouldn't do this, the dumbass !") and runs for cover. In a little cavern on one side, he finds a broomstick labelled "For Lake Rescue Goblins Only", takes it and listens to the sounds of Ron and Draco fighting out there. He grabs the broomstick tighter and runs out. Ron has just shot a jelly-head spell at Malfoy, who managed to divert it with a well-aimed shield spell. Harry runs faster and jumps right in front of Draco, who has recovered enough to shout "AV...." As he sees what Malfoy is about to do, Harry shits his pants and screams. A stinking odour seeps out of his pants. Ron screams too, because of the smell. "...IS !!!" Draco finishes his spell and Ron, who is now exposed as Harry has ducked, is hit with the spell right between the eyes, and blasted against the far rock wall. Harry yells in rage and, not having his wand, simply whacks at Malfoy with the broomstick. The latter has trouble keeping him off with a series of spells. Suddenly, Harry hears a mangled yell behind him. "Harry ! DUCK !" He turns to see who adresses him and is hit full blast with a broomstick on the side of the head. His knees soften, his head turns, but he manages to stand up. "Dammit Ron you stupid nutter !" "Why, I told you to duck ! I was gonna hit Malfoy !" "Oh !Well done you mongrel !" "Mongrel ?! Me ?! Take that you bastard !" A ferocious broomstick fight develops between them.  
  
Hardly able to keep himself from laughing, the sniggering Malfoy stands back, aims carefully and blasts them both through the curtain into the lake. He turns to Rowen, who admires him with glowing eyes. The kiss is long, passionate, and full of love. No other sound is to be heard in the candle-lit cavern other than the water slapping the cold stone of the pier.  
  
Meanwhile, in the lake:  
  
"Well done, Ron, really WELL done."  
  
"I would have got him if you hadn't gotten in between so stupidly !" After a lot of paddling in the cold water and a lucky escape from the Octopus, they arrive on the shore, only to find Snape waiting for them.  
  
"I saw you boys from the Astronomy Tower.... You are both in for detentions !" he says coldly. "That's the second time I caught you making out ! I have enough of it !" "But Sir" Ron tries to put in, "Malfoy is with a girl down at the haven ! We saw him !" "Nonsense, Weasly ! I'll have you cleaning my slime objects for a week longer than the usual month if you continue rabbling on with stupid excuses ! Now shut up ! And 150 points from Gryffindor !!!" 


End file.
